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Off shore with an ipilot

Hi all hoping someone is doing this and has a good option.
I have a 6 m alloy cat weighs about 1800 kegs and the water line is 1200 from the bow I'm thinking of installing an ipilot but was thinking would an 80 lbs kota hold on bait or as a substitute for an anchor for about 5/6 hours?
Is anyone using one on a boat this big ?
Feed back would be great.

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

I had a 80lb 60 inch on a 5.3 Borger cat. It was only any good in calm water. Cats toss their nose up a lot in choppy water and it caused it to cavitate. A 72inch would be great but they only did them in 36v, and i didn't want to weigh the nose down with the 3 batteries. BLA list a 72 inch/80lb on there website but they don't seem to stock them in Australia yet.

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

Ordered mine early July, still waiting.... ended up bypassing local supplier and going to the rep and they said Barcrusher have been taking the majority of the limited shipments that comes in so makes it very hard for the average person. Not very happy with the service so far.

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

I am running an ulterra 120 on my 7 meter CC and it is the best thing ever invented for deep water fishing. Be careful about shaft length. 80's have a max of 60 inch which may not be enough. 120's go to 72 inch. Distance from mount to water on big boats will be an issue and you can get cavitation if pitching into any size sea. I have no problems getting 10 hours out of a full charge and use it a lot. When I purchase (upgraded from a 60 inch shaft 80 because of shaft length) you could only get 72 in the ulterra (auto deploy and stow). I believe you can now get 72 in the manual model and if I had my time over, while the auto deploy is great when it works, it is, in reality, just something else to go wrong at sea. I did an extensive post here a few months ago including pictures of you search.

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

Originally Posted by nidrac

Ordered mine early July, still waiting.... ended up bypassing local supplier and going to the rep and they said Barcrusher have been taking the majority of the limited shipments that comes in so makes it very hard for the average person. Not very happy with the service so far.

Nidrac, Has your ulterra turned up yet?
Anyone else still waiting? How long so far?

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

Originally Posted by KEMEL K

Nidrac, Has your ulterra turned up yet?
Anyone else still waiting? How long so far?

Yeah mate mine turned up 2.5 weeks ago.
Put it through its paces on the weekend and am very impressed! fitted to a 6.2m boat in 15-20knt winds and current and didn't move more than a couple meters over a few hours.

Re: Off shore with an ipilot

I have a tournament 1750 half cab. How are people mounting these? Would I remove the anchor roller and position there? Or do I need to get another flat area attached? How are you guys avoiding bow rails when stowed for travel?